The smile didn’t reach his eyes.
That was the first thing Giulia noticed.
Not the years that had passed.
Not the sharpness in his face.
Not even the fact that he was standing right in front of her after everything she had believed.
It was the emptiness.
“…Dad?”
Her voice sounded smaller than she expected.
Like it didn’t belong to her.
The man tilted his head slightly.
Studying her.
As if he were the one trying to recognise her.
“Giulia,” he said at last.
Calm.
Measured.
No emotion.
The sound of her name from his mouth should have broken something open inside her.
Instead—
It made her chest tighten.
“You’re alive,” she said.
Not a question.
A statement.
A disbelief she was forcing into shape.
“I am.”
Matteo stepped forward immediately.
Positioning himself just sligh
